Negotiation Update
March 2, 2013
Phase 1 Now Complete in Principal
The parties have now reached conclusion in principal on the entire agreement for non-economic Phase 1 issues. The work of crafting language will continue in parallel with the negotiation of Phase 2 economic discussions. The process of crafting language has been slow to this point and is a concern due to the fact we don’t want to end up in the same process as the pilots, where it takes several months after reaching a TA until all Articles are finalized. The Phase 2 economic discussions begin with information being exchanged between the parties’ actuaries regarding pension and health care solutions next week. The full committee will meet in Chicago next week, March 11th -15th.
Report of the Committee
This week’s meeting in Chicago found both sides able to find some room for further discussion on some of those issues that the sub committees previously determined to be Phase 2 items. In addition, the LoA subcommittee began discussing the Letters of Agreements with the assistance of NMB mediator Michael Kelleher. Long discussions between the Union and Company representatives found agreements to changes in many of the letters. It was determined that some LoA’s should be combined where the subjects were similar. It was further determined that some LoA’s were better suited in the main body of the Agreement and should be incorporated in corresponding Articles. Other LoA’s were determined to be an accurate reflection of the operation and should be kept in their entirety. Finally, some LoA’s were seen as no longer applicable and both sides agreed they could be omitted from the final agreement. The beginning of this time period saw the parties apart on several points, but by week’s end, the company moved towards understanding and agreeing with many of our arguments closing out the phase 1 LoA discussions.
Many of these letters of agreement offer further definitions or explanations to applicable articles, and some are stand alone agreements made for specific work groups or certain working conditions. It is the recommendation of the committee that when the tentative agreement is eventually complete, each member take a close read of these back of the book LoA’s when contemplating the CBA.
Benefits
Representing the Unions interests, the Actuaries from Cheiron along with Professional Economist Dan Akins met with the experts who will be advising the company on the benefits
packages including pension and medical plans. These talks were attended by representatives of management and the Union and included the attorneys from both sides. More information was exchanged and explained between the parties in an effort to lay some solid ground work once formal benefit discussions between the parties start the week of March 11th.
The full negotiating committee was updated on the information and subjects discussed by our attorney and all the outside experts of the subcommittee. It is the opinion of the Union professionals involved that there is a genuine interest by the company to come to an agreement and get this TA complete in the time frame suggested. While this opinion was indeed encouraging by the committee, some of the information shared was a little more disheartening although not necessarily completely unexpected. Negotiating economic packages which have several major components can be a frustrating and daunting task. With diligent preparation, however, surprises can be mitigated. The Committee is taking all the information offered and attempting to simplify the choices before them in an attempt to provide the best possible deal for the membership. We remain hopeful that our goals will be met.
Seniority Integration
A formal report of the rank and file seniority integration committee was prepared and signed by mediator Ralph Berger. This report will be used by the rank and file negotiating committee during phase 2. The report can be seen at the following link:
http://www.teamster.org/sites/teamster.org/files/IBT-United-SIC-RR_3-1-13.pdf
Furloughed members urged to update their addresses
Members on furlough are advised to keep their addresses current with the company while on layoff. It is predicted that there will be many movements this year and there have been several members that have been removed from the seniority list because old addresses were on file when notices were sent.
If you are in touch with a furloughed member, please forward this information to them. Updates may be emailed to: ESC@united.com . The ESC will provide a fax number and ask members to send the address change accompanied with a signature.
